Boggarts
by Shadowed93
Summary: James Potter is now old enough to do magic outside of Hogwarts, as his first task as a fully grown wizard, he has to fight off a boggart. Entry into ToxicRainfall's challenge 'The Boggart challenge'.


**This is an entry for ToxicRainfall's challenge 'The Boggart Challenge'. The character I got was James Potter. I decided to write the story during the time that he was still attending Hogwarts. **

**I pretty much just did the challenge in order to get ideas for a story, so it's not too serious. Enjoy :)**

It was the morning of James' 17th Birthday. Now, he was a fully grown wizard. Being one of the youngest in the year had its advantages – he was able to use magic outside of Hogwarts on the first day that it was legal to do so. So far, despite only being up for an hour, he had summoned his clothes, his shoes, a moth and his breakfast. He used magic to unwrap his presents, open doors and do the washing up. He had even hoisted the cat into the air by its ankle; something he found highly amusing until his mother entered the room.

"James! Put the cat down! Just because you can use magic now doesn't mean you _have _to use magic for everything."

"Sorry, mum." He replied, grinning, showing no actual signs of being sorry at all.

"Don't lie! Now, there's a boggart in your Father's desk drawer. Since you're old enough now, I want you to get rid of it for me."

Excited for his first proper task as a grown wizard, James ran up to his Father's study. Just as he wondered what drawer the boggart was hiding in, one of them rattled violently. About to open it, he got a shock when the drawer below it rattled even more vigorously than the first. _So_, he thought, _there are two of them_. Being the overly confident teenage boy that he was, James decided to open the two drawers at once and fight off both boggarts simultaneously. He pointed his wand at the desk and prepared himself for the boggarts' appearance.

The drawers shot open. Out of one rose a giant snake, its bright green scales glinting and red eyes shining. It hissed at him, forked tongue flicking out of its mouth every so often. This, James had expected. For as long as he could remember, he had utterly despised snakes. Everything about them seemed so wrong to him. The way they slithered across the ground made him cringe, the sound of their hissing caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up and their tongues disgusted him. Not to mention the razor sharp fangs and deadly venom hidden inside their jaws. Add to that the fact that Slytherin symbol is a snake, and they're the foulest creatures to inhabit the Earth. Out of the other drawer rose something more surprising. First the red hair, then the red and gold scarf...Lily Evans was climbing out of his father's desk. Why was the boggart turning into Lily? He wasn't scared of Lily. In fact, he liked her very much. But the reason soon became clear.

Lily and the snake both hit the ground at the same time. Rather than facing James and slowly advancing on him, as was usual for boggarts, the snake turned and faced Lily. James was horrified. Somehow, the Lily-boggart had moved across the room, so the snake had to slither over to her, agonisingly slowly. She wore an expression of pure terror that matched James' perfectly. Rooted to the spot, James could only watch as the huge creature moved across the room, with its tongue flicking in and out of its mouth the entire time, as if it was trying to taste the beautiful girl that it was approaching. Even as Lily began to helplessly back away from the animal, James could not make himself do anything useful. As the snake got closer to Lily, it rose up onto its tail, towering above both her and James, looking down upon her with a hungry look in its eyes. Then it opened its mouth. Huge, pointed, deadly teeth were revealed. Lily tried to back away again, but her foot got stuck in her robes and she stumbled, and then fell backwards.

With a yell, James ran forwards, forgetting that it was not the real Lily, only a boggart. He knelt beside her, trying to check that she was okay. But she would not look at him. Every time he tried to look into her eyes she changed the direction of her gaze. A hiss from behind reminded him of the presence of the snake. He turned to see it slowly bending over them, jaws opening wider. James was terrified. Without knowing what he was going to do with it, he groped for his wand. He couldn't find it. Scanning the room, he saw it lying on the floor, out of his reach. Retrieving it meant going past the snake; something he was unsure he could do. Searching for inspiration, he turned to Lily. But she had changed.

She was still Lily, only her eyes had changed from green to red – with slits for pupils. A forked tongue flickered from between her lips for less than a second. Smiling, she hissed at him, leaning closer, as if to kiss him. Too much for James to handle, he leapt to his feet and scrambled into the corner of the room. Although he was further away from the snake and Lily, he was also further away from his abandoned wand. The two horrific creatures began advancing on him. There was a gap between them that was steadily getting smaller as they got closer. Soon it would be gone. If he was going to get his wand, he was going to have to run for it. Now. He lined himself up, closed his eyes and ran as fast as he could in a straight line. He ran, squeezing his eyes shut, and felt something brush against his leg. He grimaced, but continued until he was sure he had passed both of them. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

He spotted his wand immediately. Not thinking about what to change the boggarts into, he just grabbed the wand, pointed it at them, and shouted 'RIDDIKULUS' with so much force that they changed anyway. The snake became a gigantic balloon that rolled towards Lily, who had become a large pin. The result was a loud bang, a puff of smoke and no more boggarts. He sighed with relief and made his way back downstairs.

"Any trouble?" asked his mother as he entered the kitchen, where she was beginning to prepare his birthday meal.

"'Course not. Piece of cake," he replied, his cockiness already returning, despite the terror he had experienced only a few minutes before. "Speaking of cake... I do believe it's my birthday. I think I deserve some, don't you?" He asked, a smirk on his face.

**Thank you for reading :) Please review if you liked it, or have any criticisms. **


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